A Conversation with Timothy Newfield: Pandemics, Climate Change, and What History Reveals About Today's Biggest Challenges

In the 16th episode of Climate History, co-hosts Dagomar Degroot and Emma Moesswilde interview professor Timothy Newfield, a climate historian and historical epidemiologist in the departments of history and biology at Georgetown University. More

A Conversation with Kathryn de Luna: Reimagining University Education for Today's Multidisciplinary Problems

In the 15th episode of Climate History, co-hosts Dagomar Degroot and Emma Moesswilde interview Kathryn de Luna, Provost's Distinguished Associate Professor in the Department of History at Georgetown University. More

The good, bad, undefined Little Ice Age

The Little Ice Age (LIA), a climatic phase that overlapped with the late-medieval and early modern periods, increasingly interests historians - academic and popular alike. Recently, they have tied the LIA to the outbreak of wars, famines, economic depressions and overall troublesome times. More

A Conversation with Joseph Manning: Climate Change in the Ancient World

In the 14th episode of Climate History, co-hosts Dagomar Degroot and Emma Moesswilde interview Joseph Manning, the William K. and Marilyn Milton Simpson Professor of Classics at Yale University. More

A Conversation about COVID-19: Reflections on the Pandemic, the Past, and the Future

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In the 13th and most unusual episode of Climate History, our podcast, co-hosts Dagomar Degroot and Emma Moesswilde ​share their reflections on the COVID-19 pandemic. More

​The Legal Structure of the Paris Agreement – Flexible and Fit or Fragile and Fading?

As we enter the 2020s, the backdrop of the climate crisis remains grim. Recent scientific reports tell us that global greenhouse gas emissions are increasing, not declining as they need to. More

A Conversation with Valerie Trouet and Amy Hessl: What Tree Rings Reveal About Climate Change

In the 12th episode of Climate History, co-hosts Dagomar Degroot and Emma Moesswilde interview professors Amy Hessl and Valerie Trouet: leading paleoclimatologists who scour the Earth to measure the growth rings in trees. More

Are Surveyors' Maps and Journals an Untapped Source for Climate Scientists?

In early nineteenth century Australia, surveyors were given a near impossible task by colonial authorities. They were asked to use their expeditions to ascertain "the general nature of the climate, as to heat, cold, moisture, winds, rains, periodical seasons." More

​A Conversation with Victoria Herrmann: Activism and Storytelling in a Warming World

In the 11th episode of Climate History, co-hosts Dagomar Degroot and Emma Moesswilde interview Victoria Herrmann, president and managing director of the Arctic Institute and one of Apolitical's top 100 influencers on climate policy. Dr. Herrmann's scholarship has focused on media representations of the Arctic and its peoples. ​More

A Conversation with Bathsheba Demuth: Histories of the Changing Arctic

In the tenth episode of Climate History, our podcast, Emma Moesswilde and Dagomar Degroot interview Bathsheba Demuth, assistant professor of environmental history at Brown University. Her new book, Floating Coast: An Environmental History of the Bering Strait is now out with Norton, and has received rave reviews in both popular and academic publications. ​More

A Conversation with Kevin Anchukaitis: Past Climate Change and Why It Matters Today

In the ninth episode of Climate History, our podcast, we relaunch with a new co-host: Emma Moesswilde, PhD Student in Environmental History at Georgetown University. For the relaunch, Moesswilde and Dagomar Degroot are joined by Kevin Anchukaitis,  associate professor of geography at the University of Arizona and one of the world's leading paleoclimatologists. ​More

Remembering Disaster: How Qing Dynasty Records Reveal Connections Between Memory and Environment

Memory is one of the most powerful parts of the human psyche. It can help us make sense of the world around us, but it can also cloud our vision. Over long timeframes, memory can actually become embedded into a culture in ways that are difficult to comprehend. One of the complex effects of this sort of cultural memory may be the development of a culture of resilience in the face of extreme climatic events. More

Bird Migration, Climate Change, and History

On May 11, birders in 130 countries took part in World Migratory Bird Day (WMBD). This citizen science and conservation project enrolls professional and amateur ornithologists twice a year—in May and October—to record sightings of hundreds of species during their spring and fall passages through continental and hemispheric regions, or so-called flyways, across Africa, Europe, Asia, the Americas, and Australasia. More

Does the United States Need a Climate Refugee Policy? 

People displaced by extreme weather events and slower-developing environmental disasters are often called “climate refugees.” The term “refugee,” however, has a very precise meaning in US and international law and that definition limits those who can be admitted as refugees and asylees. Calling someone a “refugee” does not mean that they will be legally recognized as such and offered humanitarian protection. More

More: Energy History and Energy Futures

​If nuclear power is to be used as a stop-gap or transitional technology for the de-carbonization of industrial economies, what comes next? Energy history could offer new ways of imagining different energy futures, but current scholarship offers linear narratives of growth toward the development of high-energy economies, leaving little room to imagine low-energy futures. More

The Nuclear Renaissance in a World of Nuclear Apartheid 

Nuclear power is back, riding on growing fears of catastrophic climate change. The climate crisis has rekindled heated debate over the advantages and disadvantages of nuclear power. However, advocates and opponents alike tend to overlook or downplay a unique risk that sets atomic energy apart from all other energy sources: proliferation of nuclear weapons. More
Best of the Web:
August 2020

In 1674, a Mysterious Storm Devastated an Entire City. BBC Earth

Warming Greenland Ice Sheet Passes Point of No Return. Phys.org

See the Soft Aquarelle Watercolors That Resulted From Krakatoa’s Big Bang. Atlas Obscura

Half a Century of Dither and Denial - a Climate Crisis Timeline. The Guardian

Ancient Genomes Suggest Woolly Rhinos Went Extinct Due to Climate Change, Not Overhunting Eurekalert!    

Climate History Newsletters:
Quarterly Updates

Volume 5, Issue 1 (2019):
Weighing nuclear power as a solution to climate change, depopulation and the Little Ice Age.

Volume 4, Issue 3 (2018):
Chinese climate history, whaling and past climate, and a new handbook for university students.

Volume 4, Issue 2 (2018):
A new climate history of Australia, reconstructions of Crimean and Indian climates, and the Tipping Points Project.

Volume 4, Issue 1 (2018):
A new climate history working group, the Sun's impact on climate, and cold golden ages.

Volume 3, Issue 3 (2017):
Famines, volcanoes and ancient violence, and the frigid conquest of North America.

Volume 3, Issue 2 (2017):
Disaster memories, climate and conflict, and controlling nature.

Volume 3, Issue 1 (2017):
Trump's election, medieval climate history, new awards and conferences.

Volume 2, Issue 4 (2016):
PAGES, the IPCC, and Frankenstein's monster.

Volume 2, Issue 3 (2016):
Volcanoes, droughts, and the Maunder Minimum.

Volume 2, Issue 2 (2016):
The Spanish Empire and global cooling, annual meeting at the ASEH conference.

Volume 2, Issue 1 (2016):
New financial support and the Old World Drought Atlas.    

Archived Best of the Web

​Archived Features
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